Apple's Ascendance

For Steve Jobs, each Apple product - iPod, iPhone, iPad, iAnyThing - must not only be a marvel of technology but also a work of art. This confluence of function, design, aesthetics, software and hardware has captivated consumers around the globe and transformed Apple into the most valuable technology company in the world.

At the recent Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, the visionary chiel of Apple unveiled another service – iCloud - that is likely to increase the company's lead over competition.

After some failed attempts, Apple has perfected the technology to eliminate the need for manually synchronizing content to smart devices. iCloud will allow users to store content - music, photos, backups, contacts, calendars, email and ebooks - on Apple’s remote servers (“cloud”) and have it automatically pushed to their iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac or PC via WiFi.

iCloud is free. Each user gets 5GB of free storage, more than plenty for most consumers. More storage will require an annual subscription.

The term “automatically” is a critical differentiator. Apple users will not need to manually upload content to iCloud; it will happen, well, automatically. This is where Apple leapfrogs over its competitors. Both Amazon and Google have announced their own cloud services but they require manual uploading, a boring and time-consuming process that looks primitive compared to Apple’s.

The only “restriction” for iCloud to work seamlessly is that the devices will have to belong to the Apple ecosystem, that is, all the ‘i’ devices across the Apple universe. The company has ensured it by integrating iCloud technology into its operating systems – the iOS for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, and the Mac OS for its laptop and desktop computers. All Apple devices will be able to “talk” to the cloud. Users will be able to move content to and from the cloud no matter where they are, as if they are communicating with their local hard drives. iCloud will also automatically backup all your mobile devices.

Will this lock current and future users into Apple products? Steve Jobs certainly hopes so. iCloud will become available in September with the release of iOS 5.

What does iCloud do to the current state of consumer technology? It profoundly disrupts it. As Jobs said: “We’re going to demote PC and Mac to just be a device. We’re going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.” The Post-PC world is upon us.

One company that Apple has completely overshadowed is Microsoft. Every time Apple releases a product or a service, Microsoft comes across as a plodding behemoth and a weak imitator. When Apple launched its wildly successful iPod in 2001, Microsoft followed with Zune in 2006 but withdrew it from the market in 2010. It was a no-contest: Zune was inferior to iPod in every way. When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it took Microsoft 3 years before releasing a competitive product, Windows Phone 7. But the Microsoft phone is a distant third after the iPhone and Google’s Android phones. Microsoft’s purchase of Skype in May for $8.5 billion has left many industry analysts scratching their heads.

In May of 2010, Apple surpassed Microsoft as the world’s biggest technology company based on market value, after Apple almost went out of business in 1990. Apple now has a market value of about $320 billion, more than the combined value of Microsoft ($200 billion) and Intel ($115 billion)! The only other company in the world that has a greater market value is ExxonMobil ($390 billion), the oil company. Industry experts are speculating that Apple may overtake ExxonMobil in the near future.

While for the last 10 years, Microsoft stock has been stuck at about $25 a share, Apple’s stock soared from $11 a share in 2001 to its current value of $330, a rise of over 3000%!

The bulk of Microsoft’s revenue continues to be generated by its two cash cows, the Windows operating system and the Office suite. But as the digital hub moves from the PC to the cloud, and as the iPad relentlessly cuts into the sale of Windows PCs, the top technology company of the ‘80s and the ‘90s appears to be six or seven steps behind Apple.

There is no one with the vision and business acumen of Steve Jobs at Microsoft. Bill Gates, his closest competitor, left Microsoft in 2008, and while the current CEO Steve Ballmer is a talented manager, he is no Bill Gates and certainly no Steve Jobs. Recently, when a respected money manager asked Steve Ballmer to step down and pass on the torch to someone else, Microsoft stock immediately went up. Microsoft sorely needs a new vision and a new style of thinking at the top to regain the glory of its yesteryears.

Apple is on a roll. How long can this last? Just as empires rise and fall, so do technology companies. Today’s colossus is tomorrow’s also-ran. Yet Jobs seems to have found a way to keep reinventing Apple. He is currently battling pancreatic cancer but the vision he has laid out for his company and the creativity he has unleashed among his engineers will probably help Apple continue its dominance in mindshare and market share for several years to come.

As our gadgets become smarter and smarter, do we run the risk of becoming dumber and dumber? After all, if our smart devices can do our work for us and even think for us, what is left for us to do other than to scroll screens and push buttons for titillation and entertainment? Sure, we can create documents and post opinions and search databases and look up references and be connected to each other and to the cloud 24x7, but will our creativity be sucked out of us in that mode of mostly passive consumption? Smart devices may give us instant access to the world’s storehouse of knowledge but unless we set aside time for reflection and assimilation, it is difficult to see how intelligent gadgets can help produce a Fermi or a Tagore.

Bing, Another Verb, Takes On Google

Taking on Google on its own turf is something only a foolhardy company would do. But that’s what Microsoft has done with Bing (www.bing.com), its latest attempt to compete with Google in the search arena. Live Search and other past attempts had badly failed but while “agility” is not normally associated with Microsoft, “persistence” is.

And that persistence seems to have paid off. Bing is a more user-friendly search engine and leaves Google in the dust in the visual department. A new image everyday invites you to explore the world in five broad categories - Images, Videos, Shopping, News, Maps and Travel. Having become used to the austere look-and-feel of Google for so long, Microsoft’s search screen may take a while to adjust to but it seems to draw users in once they make that tentative first click.

Of course, style can go only so far. Ultimately, it’s substance that wins. Here too, Microsoft shines. I typed in Thoreau. When my cursor hovered on the right edge of a link, it displayed a summary of that Web page. The first entry on the Bard of Walden was from Wikipedia. I did not need to go to Wikipedia immediately since “Hover” gave me a synopsis. The advantage is obvious. Now I can filter out spurious results, the bane of all search engines, by scanning the summary.

Since I am planning to travel in a few weeks, I searched for Malaria videos and was presented with an array of thumbnail still pictures. Simply by placing the cursor on one of these pictures started the associated video. This removes the annoyance of having to click “play” or go to a new page. When I moved the cursor to a different image, the previous one stopped and the new one began. Again, a built-in, intuitive filtering process that makes the search experience a pleasant and productive one.

Similar features abound. I am sufficiently impressed by the service to at least alternate between Google and Microsoft for now. Google has ignored all attempts by Microsoft to usurp its territory, and for good reason, since all such attempts had led to more embarrassment for Steve Ballmer. But now Google has to respond. And therein lies the dilemma. If Google introduces same or similar features in its search interface, the company will come across as a follower rather than a leader, a position it is unaccustomed to. There are many products that Google has launched over the years that fizzled. (Who uses its social networking service other than diehard loyalists?) But search is different. If Microsoft begins to gain mindshare through Bing and Google’s dominance dissipates, shock waves will pass through the technological landscape. In the end, though, more competition in search can only be a boon for innovation and user experience.

Bill Gates Reinvents Himself

The last day at work can be a melancholy business as well as the springboard for a new career. But what if the person in question is one of the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever known? Is there any way he can reinvent himself to compare with what he has already achieved?

If anyone can pull it off, it is Bill Gates. Today is his last day at Microsoft. From now on, Gates will dedicate himself to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and to his stated aim to rid the world of deadly diseases and malnutrition through a combination of technology, medicine, money, management and expertise. That, plus improve the state of K-12 public education in the United States where a million kids drop out of schools every year, plus ensure that teachers have the right tools to motivate and inspire, plus …

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” Robert Browning’s exhortation to attempt the impossible resonates with all but only a few get to experience it. Gates has the passion, the commitment and, of course, the resources to succeed but even if he is partially successful in his “Mission Impossible,” he will have touched people’s lives on a scale that may surpass what he accomplished through Microsoft.

Microsoft will continue to be a dominant technology player for years to come but the truth is that the torch has passed to a new generation of technology visionaries, epitomized by a company called Google. You can take on the new competitors, or you can take on an even bigger challenge – to prove through action that “every life has equal value.”

Is this the road less traveled by that, in the end, will have made all the difference? Who can say? What is clear is that Bill Gates has chosen to make a difference in the lives of people around the world who desperately need a helping hand simply to survive, and that transcends technology, software, and the demands of an unforgiving marketplace.

Microsoft Needs to Reinvent Itself

Microsoft’s decision to withdraw its offer to acquire Yahoo! was a sensible one. Throughout, the dialogue was shrill, the intention bad and the move desperate. Even if Microsoft succeeded, it would have been a pyrrhic victory. As long as the company continues to think of “Search” as the holy grail of computing, a game that Google plays to perfection, Microsoft will be playing catch up and fall further behind its nemesis.

It is critical for Microsoft to reinvent itself if it wants to regain some of its former glory. It is possible but it will require Steve Ballmer to set his priorities right. Forget trying to compete online with Google through acquisitions, even if the acquisition brings you Facebook. Not much will change. Instead, focus on the creativity of your company’s most brilliant minds to chart a new direction that will make “Search” only one of the Web's crown jewel, as opposed to its most lustrous and overpowering one.

As one with a flair for mathematics, Ballmer should know that while the brute force method can be used to solve a particularly complex equation, a powerful and intuitive solution awaits discovery by gifted mathematicians inspired to think along new and original lines.

Get off the beaten track. Forge a new trail. The revenue will follow if you can capture the imagination of young geeks as Bill Gates did at the dawn of personal computing three decades ago.